I thought that when I started HVAC class, it would be a full class.
- I was surprised when I walked in and I was only one of five students.
I looked around and three of us were women. I felt more comfortable, but the two men looked uncomfortable. I thought they would split the class into two groups. One would be the men and the other the women, but I was wrong. When the HVAC instructor showed up, he was all smiles. He had his own system for setting up groups. He put names in a cup and told us to turn our heads when he came up and chose our partners. He had each of us girls come up first. I chose one of the guys, and the second girl picked out the other one. The third girl asked who she was to partner with. The instructor told her she was the lucky because she got to partner with someone special. He called in another student, who was wearing an HVAC uniform. He had just graduated from the past class, but he was willing to work as someone’s partner, since he worked for the instructor’s HVAC company. I teased him during break and asked him if he got a big bonus for working here. He laughed and said it was more like a command performance. The HVAC instructor was his dad, so it was a request he couldn’t refuse. Even though he wasn’t my partner, we found ourselves talking to each other more than once. He asked me why I wanted to be an HVAC technician? I told him my dad was his dad’s competitor, and I was an only child. I didn’t have a choice. We both laughed.